How To Save Battery Life on the iPhone

With the iPhone emerging as the preeminent smart phone in the market, many iPhone users spend several hours a day on their device for phone calls, text messages, emails, games, etc. As a result, the battery life of a single charge is often inadequate to last most users through a single day...or is it? Following a few simple steps can go a long way in making the iPhone's battery last exceedingly longer.

One of the biggest contributors to battery drain is the brightness of the screen. Simply lowering the brightness can significantly extend the battery life of the iPhone. In fact, lowering the brightness at night will also help the human eye from tiring when viewing the screen. As part of this, Auto-Brightness should be turned on. With Auto-Brightness turned on, the iPhone gauges the amount of light in the room you are in and adjusts the screen brightness accordingly. To access these settings go to "Settings"-->"Brightness" and adjust accordingly. These settings will vary based on personal preferences, but the lower the better when it comes to the relationship between screen brightness and battery life.

Along the same lines as screen brightness, setting auto-lock to the lowest possible setting (1-minute) will also conserve a significant amount of battery life. This setting is somewhat self explanatory in that it automatically locks the screen after a specified time period, in this case 1-minute. Any time the screen is on it drains the battery, as a result, keeping the screen locked as much as possible is a good rule to follow, and auto-lock helps to ensure this gets done. To access this setting go to "Settings"-->"General"-->"Auto-Lock"

Once a rarely used feature, the use of bluetooth has become popularized as a means to take phone calls hands-free using either a bluetooth earpiece, or through many car's audio systems. While bluetooth is undoubtedly a handy feature to use, when it comes to battery life it has detrimental effects. As a result, iPhone users should avoid leaving bluetooth on until it is needed (while driving, shopping, or otherwise busy). For those iPhone users who never use bluetooth it should remain off at all times. To access this setting go to "Settings"-->"General"-->"Bluetooth"

Although the ability to turn Wi-Fi on has extreme performance benefits in terms of speed for web-browsing or other internet based applications, this enhanced speed is a trade-off with battery life. As a result, when battery life is a concern sticking with 3g is a better alternative despite the loss of performance. Additionally, if you indeed need to have Wi-Fi on, it helps to have the iPhone set to NOT look for available Wi-Fi networks, as this continual searching will also have negative impacts from a battery perspective. To access these settings go to "Settings"-->"Wi-Fi"

Many would be surprised to "hear" that having an iPhone set on vibrate uses significantly more battery life than having a tone for phone calls, text messages, emails, and other alerts. Taking things a step further, keeping the iPhone on silent is the ideal setting for battery conservation. That said this is often not an option for those who need some sort of notification for phone calls, etc. To access these settings go to "Settings"-->"Sounds"

To take number five a step further, disabling any other unnecessary sounds on the iPhone will further contribute to improved battery life. Two sounds that will be unnecessary to most (and incredibly annoying) are lock sounds and keyboard clicks. The lock sound is the shutter noise the iPhone produces every time the phone is manually put into lock mode, while keyboard clicks are the clicks sounded every time a key is pressed. To turn these off simply go to "Settings"-->"Sounds" and scroll to the bottom of the list of options.

Yet another feature on the iPhone that helps improve the user experience at the expense of battery life. Location services are used by most applications to help locate your geographic position. For example, many weather applications will use this to provide forecasts without prompting the user to type in a zip code. While turning off location services will drastically improve battery life, I suggest evaluating this on an application by application basis as the iPhone conveniently allows. Keep location services turned on for any important applications ie. "Find My iPhone" and system services like "Cell Network Search." To access location setting go to "Settings"-->"Location Services"

Fetching and/or pushing data involves the means by which emails are sent your iPhone. Pushing emails is the quickest method of getting emails to your iPhone, while fetching sets up a controlled time that your iPhone will grab messages off your email server. Fetching at longer time intervals as opposed to pushing emails will have the best effects in terms of battery conservation. Setting fetching to "Manually" is ideal for battery life, but this will require the use to refresh their mailboxes in order to receive messages. To access these settings go to "Settings"-->"Mail, Contacts, Calendars"-->"Fetch New Data"

As applications are "closed" on the iPhone, they actually remain open in the background and can tie up system memory, thereby draining the battery. As a result, it is helpful to periodically shutdown all applications running in the background on your iPhone. To do this, double click the home button from the home screen to display the running apps. Simply press and hold one of the four icons on the bottom of the screen until they all begin to shake. At this time, tap the red "(-)" signs appearing on the upper left corner of the application icons to close them down and conserve battery life.

Although this may be considered a drastic method, putting the iPhone in Airplane Mode essentially disables all networks (calling, data, etc.) and significantly conserves the phone's battery. If you're simply using your iPhone to play music it is not a bad idea to put the phone in airplane mode (so long as you're not awaiting an important phone call or message). It's also a smart consideration to use airplane mode if you have your iPhone on the charger and you need a rapid charge. One final situation where Airplane mode comes in handy is when you are in an area with spotty service. Instead of having the iPhone overwork continually looking for service, putting the iPhone in airplane mode will prevent any excessive burden on the battery.

Here are some unconventional ways to help improve the battery life on your iPhone.

• Purchase a charger for your car, your desk at work, or any other place you spend extended periods of time. After-all loosing battery life isn't so bad when recharging is so simple.
• Be sure to completely drain your iPhone's battery from time to time to help it recalibrate itself. Crazy to think that draining the battery can help conserve the battery huh?
• Change your usage habits: Watching less movies, listening to less streaming music, and doing less intense web browsing will obviously help prevent the battery from draining as quickly.